There are many ideas about how change occurs. Each has some strengths and is able to influence government to some degree, for good as well as bad. I prefer advocacy of decency and an autonomy that benefits people directly over other methods, says Ashwin Mahesh.

The Supreme Court issued six directives in 2006 on bringing about police reforms in the states to make the police free from political interference and accountable to the citizens. Kathyayini Chamaraj analyses the state governments' responses and finds much amiss.

The state is by far the biggest litigant, and contributes a large part to the staggering backlog clogging the courts. The Centre, States and public sector companies determinedly appeal every adverse verdict, despite winning only a small minority of them eventually. Kannan Kasturi reports.

These are unusual times - when even the most capitalist and free market proponents of the world see an important role for governments. But it is not a time to to look at government challenges through ideological prisms alone, writes C V Madhukar.

The draft notification specifying emission standards for coal-based thermal power plants is a welcome first step towards regulation, but needs much greater attention to detail and further calibration, writes Debadityo Sinha.

The present government completed one year in the office in May this year. It came to power by promising to bring achhe din for the Indians, who were frustrated with high inflation, corruption and policy paralysis during the last government. Pradeep Baisakh objectively analyses the performance of the Modi government in its first year.

Renault-Nissan Alliance CEO Carlos Ghosn talks with WSJ Deputy Managing Editor Alan Murray about the role of government support and subsidies in the future of the electric car.

'A majority in Parliament is not necessary to run the government,' says Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap, explaining the legal options before the President once the election results are declared.

M Karunanidhi, who is keen on ensuring that all his children are well settled before he passes into the ages, needs to learn from President Kalam's example.

By fixing a minimum tenure for secretaries in key ministries, Singh can ensure continuity of policy.

This does not sound like a ministry that is all set to revive the ailing Indian economy in a hundred days flat, as Dr Manmohan Singh vowed, does it?

But for the dispute between the Ambani brothers, the many errors and inactions of the government would not have come to the public's notice, writes Ashok Sreenivas.

June 5 is the UN World Environment Day. Ashish Kothari reflects on the challenges and opportunities for the new government and civil society.

As the Kerala government takes steps to re-inspire citizens to engage in grassroots level governance, P Mohammad Nizar draws attention to certain critical issues that must be addressed for the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the state to be effectively revitalised.

A new scheme launched by PM Narendra Modi envisages development through a model in which every MP chooses a village to develop, with people’s participation. Vikas Jha looks at the numbers and realities to explore the real needs of rural development at the panchayat level.

The buzz on the global front should not distract us from pressing matters at home. This would also make our security agenda more human and less state-centric, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

45 km south of Nagapattinam, the 26 December tsunamis washed away thousands of tonnes of stock salt at the Vedaraniam salt pans, filled them with debris and black silt. With government relief coverage withdrawn and the start of the season missed, manufacturers are in despair. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

S Venkatraman presents an interesting set of charts to capture the movement of the consumer price index and finds that the answer to this question may not be an easy one to arrive at.

The armed services have given a long wishlist of material to be procured, but the Defence Minister is in no hurry to accommodate them. In the process, he's ruffling some feathers, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

With the PM not entirely rejecting British claims to good governance, this Independence Day week is a proper time to review the legacy of the Raj. One finds that colonial governance was certainly good for the British, while tens of millions of Indians died of wilful and callous neglect, writes P Sainath.

With the Modi government strongly pushing for the removal of UPA-appointed governors, the issue is once again in the limelight. Anviti Chaturvedi throws light on what the Constitution and Supreme Court laws say on the matter.

The Prime Minister has received at least two letters in the past week from eminent economists, activists and citizen groups, raising their voices against dilution of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which seems imminent from recent announcements by the government.

Around 40 RTI activists in the country have been killed in recent years, several of them after the Whistleblowers Protection Act was passed. Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya explores why the said law has been unable to achieve its stated end.

If you want to beat up Hazare for his stubbornness, go right ahead. But before that, start with the Union Cabinet, notes Subramaniam Vincent.

"The main hurdle to the development of Jharkhand is political: the state’s resources are under the control of this criminal nexus, and people have no say." Jivesh Singh interviews Jean Dreze on Jharkhand's 10th anniversary.

Even as the state government refuses to accept the cause behind the recent 50 starvation deaths reported by the media, hunger stalks the people of Balangir and other KBK districts in Orissa portending more such tragedies, writes Pradeep Baisakh.

Two weeks into the ban, the question to ask is whether the situation has improved and whether protests in Kashmir have abated. Moazum Mohammad says the answer is no.

Abhijit Das expresses concerns on the United Progressive Alliance's misplaced stress on population control targeting, taking the case of Uttar Pradesh.

The Government of Karnataka's Working Group on Decentralization discusses transparency and accountability for rural self-governance in the state. The first in a series of articles adapted from the Working Group's 2002 report.

Kathyayini Chamaraj looks at a civil society partnership that is catalysing a government urban poverty alleviation programme.

Bangalore Municipality's fourth quarter results round up and other updates from the city' Public Records of Operations and Finance (PROOF) campaign.

India Together interviews Srikanth Nadhamuni of Bangalore's eGovernments Foundation.

Bangalore, once the poster-boy of new age India and its development, is now crumbling, having been sorely let down by the administration and politics of the state. As Karnataka heads for polls, Subramaniam Vincent, discusses the prospects and necessary preconditions for change with independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Susan Mani looks at the issues involved in the coming together of government and NGOs to improve service delivery.

Suicides by consuming poison contribute to over two-thirds of the total autopsies performed at a sub-district hospital in interior Vidarbha, Maharashtra. "Pesticide could be bought from any Krishi Kendra. But for medicine, they've to walk miles before they could get it," says one health official. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

A audit of the Maharashtra government's post-flood disaster relief expenditure of the last two years has thrown up plenty of instances of misuse of funds. The audit has also gone into the causes of floods turning out to be disasters. Himanshu Upadhyaya has more.

Shattered by a complete failure of crop this year, and looming debt, the three-acre farmer in Yavatmal, Mahrashtra, followed what tens of other farmers have done in Vidarbha in the past. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

In Pune, bureaucratic meddling and lack of vision are threatening a simple, cost-effective eco-technology which treats heavily polluted water and turns messed-up water bodies into clean ones, reports Surekha Sule.

Since 1963, there have been repeated breaches in the Kosi's embankments, causing tremendous loss and tragedy. Yet, Bihar's governments have made little headway and argue each year as if the problems were new, says Dinesh Kumar Mishra.

e-Governance initiatives are paying off in states considered as difficult as Bihar, bringing to commoners easier access to public services. Some have been empowered by it to stop their exploitation. Ramesh Menon reports.

A Rajasthan-registered bus, which carried 43 pilgrims from Ajmer Sharif that falls in the red zone, to Silchar on Wednesday, has now become cause of worry for Assam after five of its passengers have tested positive in the past 24 hours, which has pushed the state’s total positive cases to 49 on Friday.

Leaders of political parties on Friday expressed concern over the sad state of Odia migrant labourers stranded at different parts of the country.

The cancer of corruption eating into India’s medical sector is no secret. Reports of patients being prescribed unnecessary tests by unscrupulous doctors in league with labs abound.